Check, please.

The bill for the most expensive G8 in history has now arrived totaling a full €512 million . This is the expense that Italy spent for last year’s G8 Summit, which was moved from the island of La Maddalena to L’Aquila. And it was simply due to a PR stunt orchestrated during Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sex scandal crisis.

The most incredible thing is that the G8 venue at La Maddalena was already prepared and had been for months… at a huge cost.  New hotels, conference rooms, docks, and streets were built or renovated for a total cost of €327 million. Money wasted. Money which magistrates are now investigating due to an emerging conflict-of-interests scandal which would have seen lucrative construction contracts awarded to the usual “friends of friends”.

Following the polemics over bribes received by the Civil Protection agency, it should not be excluded that something fishy took place even for the G8 preparations.

So, €327million have been thrown away. But why? Because Silvio Berlusconi decided to move the G8 Summit from a renovated and rebuilt La Maddelena to L’Aquila, the city that had recently been devastated by an earthquake. Over a mere few months a new G8 was organized with the government spending further €200 million in L’Aquila.

When the internally displaced citizens of L’Aquila now feel the coming summer heat in their refugee tents, they will remember the millions of euros in frivolities spent for the ‘world’s great leaders’.  Yes, Italy’s G8 farce was an incredible waste of public money and suspicion now falls upon those who may be responsible for such reckless greed.

Read the article here.

When you have heard many promises, and these promises weren’t kept, you’re bound to explode. This is what is happening in L’Aquila, Italy.

According to Corriere della Sera, the city destroyed by the April 6^th earthquake is still waiting for the many promises made by the government to become reality. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had promised that all the L’Aquila inhabitants would be able to return to their homes before September. It is now February and the situation remains unchanged. Many citizens are still out of their homes and the city itself remains in bad conditions.

So, the residents of L’Aquila are now trying to react. In the last two weekends, thousands of citizens forced themselves into the “red zone” in L’Aquila city center, closed since the quake, to protest against the Italian government. Protesters, led by L’Aquila’s mayor, began a symbolic protest by hanging the keys of their abandoned homes in the town piazza. This protest has taken the name of “The protest of the keys.”

“The citizens express their rage. They’re frightened by the delays in construction and because almost nothing has been done,” said the mayor. “The removal of debris is the biggest problem. We’re alone, and we can’t remove debris without state help. It’s impossible to remove 4 tons of debris. And if the debris is still here, we can’t build a new city.”

During the peaceful protest there was also a protest against one RAI Italian TV crew. The L’Aquila inhabitants accused the journalists of only generating pro-government propaganda and ignoring the real problems of the city.

Dozens of Basiji militants, supporters of the Iranian government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have tried to assault the Italian embassy in Teheran shouting “Death to Italy, death to Silvio Berlusconi,” reports Corriere della Sera.

The militants, dressed as civilians tried to assault the embassy with stones and continued their aggressions against both the French and Dutch embassies.

The news was released by the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, during a Senate hearing. There were no reports about wounded staff, but the attack, he said, was ‘worrying’.  The cause of the Iran militants’ assault is Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s criticisms of Ahmadinejad made during a visit to Israel. According to Iranian state television, Berlusconi and the Italian government were named as ’slaves of Israel.’

The Italian Foreign Minister Frattini then announced that he had given instructions to Italy’s ambassador in Tehran, Alberto Bradanini, to have no part in the ceremonies taking place on Thursday at the 31^st anniversary of the Iranian republic.

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Silvio Berlusconi received new and heavy accusations about relationships between him and the Sicilian Mafia dating back to the early 90s, reports Italy’s Corriere della Sera.

The most recent claims from Massimo Ciancimino (son of the former Palermo mayor accused of collaborating with Cosa Nostra) state that the Italian PM’s political party, Forza Italia, was created in 1992 after a long negotiation between the Mafia and the state. The birth of the party would be a mechanism to help both Berlusconi and the Mafia enrich themselves and accumulate power.

The accusations were supported by a “pizzino” (Mafia slang for a little message written on a small piece of paper) sent by the former Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano to Silvio Berlusconi and his right-hand man Marcello Dell’Utri (already convicted for associating with the Mafia).

“My father said that the relationship between the Mafia and Forza Italia were significant, and that Berlusconi was representing Provenzano’s will.  On one hand, the Prime Minister solved many of his problems at the national level, and on the other hand Provenzano promised the Mafia’s help for his party. In the years since, the two entities grew their businesses and their relationship lasted for years.”

Massimo Ciancimino continues to accuse Berlusconi but now he even has evidence.  If all this were to be true, Italy would now be facing the biggest scandal in the history of the Italian republic.

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Following Sunday’s attack, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi remains hospitalized, but has had a pretty good night, reports Italy’s Corriere della Sera.

Today Berlusconi will undergo new medical visits and probably will leave the hospital tomorrow. The PM’s spokesperson, Paolo Bonaiuti, told journalists: “All Italian politicians have expressed their support for the PM, but we’re afraid that Berlusconi risks another attack. He is in a pretty good shape, and we’re sure he’ll leave the hospital soon.”

The medical team has forbidden Berlusconi to work for the next two weeks. They say his health condition does not yet permit a full work regime. He has lost two teeth, has facial lacerations and a broken nose.

Roberto Maroni, Minister of the Interior, confirmed Bonaiuti’s words. “There’s a heavy climate in Italy. The risk that another crazy man will attack our Prime Minister is high. The first thing we’ll do concerns the internet. We’ll shutdown the websites, or social network groups, that celebrate the assailant or that call for Berlusconi’s death.” Italy’s President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, also released a statement: “We must stop this climate of hate in Italy. I’m sad for this horrible attack and I hope Italian politics will use calmer tones. This way of making politics is harmful and unnecessary.”

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‘Does Italy have a new opposition leader in Gianfranco Fini?’ asks Italian news blog L’Antefatto.

After yesterday’s televised comments, it would appear so.

Italy’s Speaker of the House and longstanding Silvio Berlusconi ally, Gianfranco Fini, was caught trashtalking about the Italian Prime Minister yesterday during an off-camera moment. Gianfranco Fini is one of the leaders of the National Alliance party, a reformed political continuation of the Fascist party.

While in conversation with a magistrate, Fini made a snippy comment about PM Berlusconi’s trouble with the law and disdain for Italy’s judicial system: ‘He confuses electoral consent with absolute monarchy… I told him that he cannot continue this way.’ Fini also declared allegations that Berlusconi had Mafia ties to be an ‘nuclear bomb’ for the Prime Minister’s reputation.

While L’Antefatto hypothesizes about the rise of a new opposition figure, Euronews writes that Fini has been called upon to explain his comments criticising the Italian prime minister. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Fini telephoned a television show late on Tuesday to make it clear he believes “Berlusconi has nothing to do with the Mafia.”

But he refused to take back his comments about the prime minister’s autocratic style, saying Berlusconi “has the right to continue governing because he was given a wide popular mandate, but he must respect parliament and the judiciary bodies.”

Nonetheless, Berlusconi’s grasp of Italy’s national political scene appears to be slipping as a string of sex scandals and judicial proceedings involving the PM’s alleged ties with the Mafia have deteriorated his public standing. To many, Gianfranco Fini appears to be a likely successor.

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The leaked World Food Summit draft declaration falls short of a UN goal of eradicating hunger by 2025. Instead, leaders are expected to to sign a watered down declaration in Rome next week that calls for vague increases in aid for farmers in poor countries but sets no targets or deadlines for action, says The Daily Telegraph.

Leaders are expected to reaffirm their commitment to the UN’s Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 – a target that is unlikely to be reached.

But a final draft declaration instead made only a commitment to “substantially increase the share of official development assistance devoted to agriculture and food security based on country-led requests.”

“The declaration is just a rehash of old platitudes,” said Francisco Sarmento, food rights coordinator for ActionAid.
Campaigners condemned the fact that the summit will be attended by only one G8 leader – Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who is hosting the gathering.

Britain will be represented by two junior ministers, Mike Foster, from the Department for International Development and Jim Fitzpatrick, of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The US, the world’s biggest food aid donor, will send the acting head of the US Agency for International Development.

More than 60 world leaders are expected, including Pope Benedict XVI, Col Gaddafi of Libya, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

“It’s a tragedy that the world leaders are not going to attend the summit,” said Daniel Berman of Medecins Sans Frontières.

Meanwhile, a week after Politiken reported that the UN Climate Czar, Yvo de Boer, announced his confidence that at Copenhagen ‘we will have an agreement’ on the climate, UN Dispatch today reports that “world leaders have decided to put off a full treaty until at least next year and instead aim for a less sweeping, “politically binding” agreement in Copenhagen.”

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The French foreign ministry on Tuesday dismissed accusations that an alleged cash-for-peace deal between Italian forces and Taleban warlords put French troops in danger, reports ANSA.

Bernard Valero, a spokesman for the ministry, said the controversy ”began with reports from a British newspaper and ended the next day when Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi denied them.”

Articles published in The Times last week alleged that the Italian secret service bought a truce from Taleban commanders and tribal warlords in the Sarobi area east of Kabul, where ten French troops were later killed during an ambush in August 2008.

The articles insinuated that the French troops who replaced the Italians mistakenly thought the area to be peaceful, because their allies failed to inform them of the arrangements.

The Times reports included quotes from unnamed NATO officials and a local Taleban chief who claimed Italians paid for peace in the area. It also cites phone interceptions made by US officials:

US intelligence officials were flabbergasted when they found out through intercepted telephone conversations that the Italians had also been buying off militants, notably in Herat province in the far west. In June 2008, several weeks before the ambush, the US Ambassador in Rome made a démarche, or diplomatic protest, to the Berlusconi Government over allegations concerning the tactic.

The articles met with angry denials from both the Italian government and the opposition who called them an affront to the 22 Italian soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan since Italy’s mission there began in 2004.

Asked if NATO would open an inquiry into the charges, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday said they were ”just accusations” and that he had ”faith in his allies”.

In an attempt to end the controversy, Valero stated that ”France has taken note of the Italian government’s denial of the accusations” and that ”the case is closed.”

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Everything began a few days ago when on one of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s television networks a news story about an Italian magistrate aired.

Which magistrate was covered by Tg5, the news outlet for Berlusconi’s Channel 5, asks La Repubblica?

His name is Raimondo Mesiano and it was he who passed sentence against the Italian Prime Minister in the Lodo Mondadori trial in which Berlusconi was charged with corruption of an official and fined over $300 million.

In the news story, Magistrate Mesiano is closely followed by the Tg5 crew and is heckled by a journalist for his hairstyle and the clothes he is wearing. All because Magistrate Mesiano is Berlusconi’s ‘enemy.’

Voices of support for Mesiano have risen up from the ranks of the political opposition, fellow magistrates and journalists. A group of Mediaset journalists have also protested against what they deem as behavior offensive to their professional values. “We’re frightened over what’s happening in Italian media and at Mediaset,” stated a press release from the protesting Mediaset journalists.

As the BBC reports, Mediaset, which owns Canale 5, defended the broadcast, saying it showed a magistrate who “has acquired national and international notoriety”.

On 5 October, Judge Mesiano found Mr Berlusconi “co-responsible” for the bribery of a judge who decided in favour of his holding company, Fininvest, in a business takeover deal.